Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (20 page)

“They’ve never done that before,” Mr. Smith quietly rumbled.

“The Shadowmen have changed tactics,” Captain Hawkins replied, “though I also suspect Captain Thorne just sent me a message. In any event,” raising his voice as he turned to Master Walters, “we live on to fight another day. Steady as she goes.”

“Steady as she goes,” Master Walters replied, “Aye, captain. Alright you lazy dogs,” he bellowed as he turned around, “the show’s over. Everyone back to work.”

Turning back towards the stern I looked out over the ocean. Pepper held my hand as I released her, both of us watching as the hands of the queen carried the wreck of my old life with her as the Dutch Flyte sank beneath the waves.

Pepper released my hand as Captain Hawkins turned towards us. “Jeremiah, take my apprentice below and get him fed, but then send him back topside. He needs to attend me here on the quarterdeck. Pepper, speak gently to the Venetian and have her join me.”

“As you wish, sir,” Pepper said as she looked at me. “Bide here until I return. I won’t be long.”

As she turned to leave I blurted out, “Do you always get your way?”

“Pretty much,” she said with a grin. I couldn’t help smiling back at her, and Pepper fairly skipped to the stairs, her bare feet almost silent as she went down them.

Jeremiah poked me in the ribs. “Will you gather your wits? What’s gotten into you?”

“I can’t help it,” I said, trying to think of a way to describe how her face lit up when she smiled, and how I couldn’t get that face out of my thoughts. “She’s just...bloody bones, I don’t know.”

“Leave be,” Mr. Smith said in his deep rumble, clearly amused. “It’ll make things easier if Tomas gets on with her.” He turned his attention on me and I turned to face him. Mr. Smith had tattoos all over his arms and bare chest in a swirl of designs, although some stood out, like the manacles tattooed on his wrists, with a length of chain extending down his arm to the elbow, where it ended in a broken link, or the African woman’s face tattooed directly over his heart. But no matter where else I looked, my gaze always returned to the mythical scaled dragon with its tail wrapped around his waist and the head staring directly at whoever stood in front of him. “Tomas,” he went on, “your service with the captain begins with you treating Pepper as your beloved, regardless of whether you feel that way for her or not.”

“But she’s daft! I mean, I like her well enough and she’s comely, especially when she smiles...”

“Comely?” Jeremiah looked at me like I’d gone daft myself. “She’s got a tiny nose and freckles, not to mention barely enough bosoms to hold in your hand.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but a dark look from the captain quickly shut it. “I care not whether you find her comely or how daft she becomes. You will do whatever it takes to make her happy, or I swear I will make your life as miserable as I can. Am I clear?”

“Harry,” Mr. Smith said, “let me explain a few things to the lad.” The captain made a ‘go-ahead’ gesture with his hand, and Mr. Smith went on. “Has Jeremiah explained to you about the Articles?”

“He has, and why Sally’s so important to the crew. I also know Pepper’s important to Sally, though I have to admit I don’t understand why.”

Master Khan had been so quiet I’d forgotten he was there until he spoke. “Pepper lived her early life on Three-day Island, which is often visited by the Bo, yes? Pepper knows much of their customs and rituals, and the night she was brought aboard the Blackjack Davy, Sally took Pepper as her blood sister. Now they are as close as human and Bo can be.”

“Sally’s as much the captain’s ally as I am,” Mr. Smith said in his deep rumble, “but much of the crew is not. However, they’re willing to follow him...provided they feel they’re being treated with fairness, and not being short-changed.”

“And Sally’s part of that,” I said, beginning to realize things were more complex than I’d thought. “What happens if the crew starts thinking they’ve been short-changed?”

“Elect a new captain,” Captain Hawkins said, “and kill off the old one... if they can. It’s been tried before and I prefer not to have it tried again.” He stabbed a finger at my face. “So, you will keep Pepper happy, so she can keep Sally happy.”

“‘Cause if momma ain’t happy,” Ezekiel said without taking his gaze from the horizon, “ain’t none of us happy.”

“Captain,” Jeremiah said with the stubborn look on his face I remembered well, “this is still going to be like taking a stick and knocking down a hornet’s nest on top of the crew when they...”

I whirled as Selene’s voice called out my name behind me. She hurried over to where I stood and threw her arms around me, the scent of sweetness and musk in my nose as I felt the softness of her body. But she let me go at once to anxiously look me over. “I despaired that I had sent you to your death on a foolish whim, but the Dragon Pepper tells me you are well.”

“I’m fine,” I answered, glancing at Pepper, who was still standing near the stairs as she gave Selene a narrow-eyed gaze. “Pepper took excellent care of me while I slept.”

Pepper gave me a smile which I returned, Selene giving the redheaded girl a cool glance as she said, “I am pleased to hear of it. But my aunt,” Selene’s face growing troubled, “what happened? Is she...”

“Your aunt wouldn’t let me save her.” I took a deep breath as I remembered the old woman’s last words. “She said she wanted to die as she’d lived, on her own terms, but bid me to carry on her quest to find news of her daughter.”

Selene laughed as she burst into tears. “That is so like the old harridan. Pray did she at least give you the locket with the picture of my cousin within it?”

“The locket is part of the common-held plunder,” Captain Hawkins said, pulling out a small painting as well as an elegantly embroidered piece of cloth from a pocket of his captain’s coat. Jeremiah pulled me out of the way as the captain stepped in front of Selene and put both in her hands. “The portrait is of little value to anyone save you, so keep it and the handkerchief as well.” Selene nodded as she put the cloth to her face, the captain’s expression softening. “Dry your eyes: the dead are seldom worth the tears shed for them.”

Selene wiped her eyes and delicately blew her nose. “Pray forgive me, sir; I fear the day’s events have quite unnerved me.”

“Freely given,” he answered. “For your safety you will need to remain in my cabin while most of the crew is on deck, until we reach Tortuga. I will tell you when it is safe for you to be about deck. Am I clear?”

Selene met his gaze with a direct one of her own. “I am yours to command, captain.”

He gave her a hungry smile. “Were the rest of the crew half as willing. We shall dine together, along with Mr. Smith, and then sample some of the excellent Italian wine we liberated from the ship’s stores while you tell us of yourself and your late lover, Councilor Bartholomew. I’ve heard some interesting stories told about him.”

Selene inclined her head. “I am always happy to tell stories about him, and whatever else you desire to know.”

Pepper spoke up before anyone else could. “Captain, I can get Fire-rose to bring you food from the galley, so you won’t have to bring her below. Smoke will help too.” I felt a stab of hurt at Smoke’s abandoning me, which must’ve showed on my face for Pepper’s face softened. “You haven’t lost her...you’ll see.”

“Not until we know for sure you’ve been discovered,” Captain Hawkins said to her in a sharp voice. “I’ll not have you alarming Dava needlessly, are we clear?”

“Aye, sir,” Pepper answered in a cheerful voice. Captain Hawkins grimaced as he shook his head while Pepper beckoned to me. “C’mon, I’ll give you the grand tour of the crew’s hold.”

Jeremiah fell in beside me and we walked towards the stairs leading down to the main deck. “That girl’s going to be all our deaths,” he muttered.

“Just her own,” Fire-rose’s voice said from beside us, making Jeremiah and I both jump, “and far sooner than she should. “Excuse me,” her voice moving away from us, “but I must attend the captain.”

Jeremiah and I traded a look before joining Pepper, who only looked at me and smiled.

The crew’s hold stunk. To be fair, the crew’s hold of every ship I’d ever been on smelled of too many men living together for months, and to my surprise, this one had less of an offensive odor than I’d expected as we walked down the steep steps leading below deck. I mentioned it to Jeremiah, who replied, “We hung cinnamon-balls in the crew’s privy.”

As I’d heard it, a Dragon in the Turkish empire had come up with the idea of making Artifacts which gave off a pleasant scent over time, and the idea had been picked up by Italian Dragon craftsmen, who’d improved the Artifacts so they’d last for years. They commanded a high price. “But they’re expensive...which means you stole them off a merchant.”

“Liberated, please,” Pepper replied as we reached the lower deck. The ceiling was higher than I’d expected, so only the tallest of the men had to stoop, held up by a small forest of square pillars with iron hooks set on each side. Hammocks were hung between the posts as were canvas bags, with travel chests set beside them along with carved wooden chairs, both clearly looted from the towns they’d raided over the years. From the ceiling were hung dragon-globes in their rope baskets, swaying with the motion of the ship as her bow cut through the waves like an Artifact knife.

A few men were playing cards but most were eating some kind of stew from wooden bowls, the ones closest to us looking up as Pepper continued. “This is where most of the crew lives. The officers have cabins of their own off to starboard,” which was to our left since we were facing the stern of the ship, “while the privy and the galley are off to port. C’mon.”

There was an obvious passage leading straight from port to starboard, like a path through the forest, and Pepper led us toward the port side where the privy sat, and as we turned toward the stern I glanced inside. It was a three-seater enclosed in a small space with an open doorway, and two black, pitted balls hung from rope baskets hung to either side. The smell of cinnamon was strong.

But cinnamon gave way to fish as we walked past it, the crew watching us as we passed. Their eyes were not unfriendly but more curious, Pepper and Jeremiah both sharing jests with them as we walked on. One grizzled oldster with a short, white beard chuckled as he pointed at my shirt. “Curly said the captain’s made you his new apprentice. Hope you fare better’n the last one.”

I glanced down at the faded bloodstain. “What happened?”

“Lad was going one-on-one with a ship’s captain when a sailor stabbed him with a pike.” The oldster shook his head. “He died of blood loss ‘fore Pepper could get Fire-rose to save him.” The grizzled oldster held out his hand. “Henry Campbell, known to the crew as ‘Twelve-fingered Harry’.”

We shook hands as Pepper said, “He’s called that on account of his talent for music. He can play his violin in such a way you’d swear he’s got an extra couple of fingers.”

“You have musicians aboard?”

“Two drummers and Henry,” Pepper replied. “The drummers are named Will, Olde Will and Young Will, being father and son. Young Will’s pretty good on the pipes and Olde Will’s learning, but both drum the men into battle when the captain calls for it.”

Twelve-finger Harry said, “Sally’s promised to give us a dance, so if yer below deck tonight you’ll get a chance to hear me play.”

The men around us became cheered at the news, calling out to each other as Jeremiah tapped my shoulder and led us on, with Pepper following behind. The scent of stewed fish grew stronger as we reached the ship’s galley, the kitchen separated from the hold by a pair of wooden walls on each side, reaching the ceiling, and its front by a low, wooden table butted up against one of the walls. In the L-shaped corner it made sat an Artifact stove. Before it had been transmuted, the stove had been crafted long and low with a high back, all of it carved like a vineyard full of grapevines, its leaves all individually shaped as were the grapes on its clusters, then transformed by a dragon-ghost into a shiny, black Artifact. On its top were two black discs which looked like transmuted bone. One of the discs was glowing a dull red, the iron cook pot on its surface making a bubbling sound as steam rose up into the air, the scent of fish stew making my mouth water as we reached the low table.